Meddling with Time
by Mia Valt
Summary: What would have happened if a 10 year old Tom Riddle had suddenly appeared in Harry's cupboard... in 1991?


Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, or any character in the Harry Potter series.

Meddling with Time

It was a cold july night and Harry Potter was trying to get some sleep, he only had one thin blanket inside his cupboard, and the fact that he had missed dinner only helped to keep him awake, even though it was almost dawn.

Harry hated his life, he couldn't understand why he was treated so badly, he had always been a well behaved child, earning him compliments with Ms. Becker, the librarian, but none from his relatives. The neighbors seemed to dislike him too, but Harry was too young to notice they were mostly looking down on his clothes and malnourished form and not on his manners or personality.

Thinking about himself only served to make him sad, and just as he was about to fall asleep, something heavy felt on top of him, and he soon realised it was moving! The young boy made as if to shout but quickly thought better of it. His uncle would be mad if he did, so he just tried to get the furthest away from whatever had fallen in top of him. An amazing feat in such a small cupboard.

"What the..?" was heard in the cupboard. The voice was not Harry's.

"Who are you?" Harry demanded, trying his best to hide how frightened he was.

"Why would I have to tell you that?" Another dark haired boy, about the same age answered with confidence. " You better answer that yourself first. After you tell me how you brought me here"

Harry shifted unconfortably. He didn't know what to make of the newcomer but even him could tell the kid was similarly confused. _He's just a kid, and he's alone, just like me. _Being young and naive, he quickly decided to be truthful and offered what little information he knew.

"My name's Harry, I live here, I have no idea how you got here, I was almost asleep when you did"

The other boy looked at him suspiciously, searching him for any sign of wanting to harm him, and finding none he spoke again, friendlier this time.

"I'm Tom, I didn't mean to appear out of nowhere... don't you have any lights here?" Tom start searching the walls for a light switch.

"No, sorry, this is a cupboard you know?" Harry was feeling uncomfortable about this, but he somehow felt as if he could trust Tom after getting over the initial shock of him appearing out of nowhere.

"And why exactly were you sleeping in a cupboard? Even I sleep in a real room... most of the time" The last part was sort of an afterthought but Harry had heard it, 'so I'm not the only one treated like this, maybe is not my fault, maybe some kids are just less lucky than others' thought Harry.

"Well, this is my aunt and uncle's house, they sleep in a room uptairs and so does Dudley, my cousin, then.. there's Dudley's second bedroom and a guest room, I guess there's no more space for me up there" Harry was trying to hide the fact that the Dursley's didn't like him, what if Tom hated him too because of that?

"Oh, ok" Tom had noticed Harry's reluctance to talk about that subject, and he wanted out of that cupboard, he needed to get out before Harry's family found him, they didn't sound very nice. Tom managed to found the doorhandle, only to find the door closed.

"You are locked in a cupboard by your relatives?" Suddenly Tom realised all people were evil, it weren't only the people at the orphanage, kids with a family were treated like him too, his dreams of going out of the orphanage to find better people was shatered, there was no hope.

"I'm sorry, look, maybe you could wait till morning here, and then when aunt Petunia opens my door in the morning, I can tell uncle Vernon to take you home..." Harry stop now realising uncle Vernon was not going to take very well to a kid who had appeared out of nowhere, he would probably treat him as bad as he treated Harry "no, we can't do that, uncle Vernon doesn't like anything out of the ordinary, I can't tell him you just appeared here"

"Well, I don't need his help, and I don't care what he thinks, I can go off in my own" Tom said proudly.

"But how are you getting home? where do you like? I think this is called Little Whinging, in Surrey" This was Harry's first oportunity to speak with someone for more than five minutes, without Dudley ruining it, mabe Tom could be his friend, he wasn't going to let him go on his own, also it was not as he could.

"I live in... I'm an orphan, I don't have a home, I just want to go out, will you please not tell your uncle? please" Tom dindn't want to get reported and sent back to the orphanage, this was his chance to escape, to live on his own.

"I'm an orphan too, where are you going? can I go with you? please let me go with you, I hate my relatives, they beat me..." He had never given so much information about himself to anyone, he didn't even know why he was doing it now, maybe it was because he wanted to convinced Tom to let him go with him. Harry had thought of running away before, but had never done it, afraid of what could happen to him alone in the street, but going with someone else, with a friend, was different.

"I guess you could" said Tom now excited about it "but if you manage to get us caugh, I swear I will..." Tom stop the threat when he heard a noise uptairs.

"Shh it must be morning already" Harry whispered "quickly hide under this" said Harry holding his thin matress "when she opens the door, I'll go to the kitchen, and so will she, wait until she's there and run to the living room, hide behind the sofa, and wait five minutes for me" the steps were getting closer and Harry pretend to be waking up as the door opened, her aunt said nothing, she only gestured towards the kitchen and Harry got dressed quickly before following her.

Soon after entering the kitchen he start cooking but halfway he said he needed to go to the bathroom urgently, after reprimending him and ordering to be quick, aunt Petunia took over the cooking chore, that's when Harry took advantage of the situation and instead of running to the bathroom, run to the front door, and taking the spare keys from a drawer, he ran out the door, closely followed by Tom.

They ran, and ran, until Harry didn't even recognise his surrondings, they were tired and start going at a slower pace until they were just walking.

"We did it" Harry said out of breath.

"That means we are now free, what are we going to do now?" He said looking around him, things were definetly different than in his neighborhood, and the car that had just passed it was a model he had never seen before, even the stores were weird, there was nothing normal about this place.

"You were the one with the idea! you mean you hadn't thought this over?" Now he was worried.

"...no, I guess I just thought we could get a job or something" Tom had worked a couple of times, there were always people that would give you a couple of coins for helping them out with simple things back home, but this place was different, it made him unsure.

"work? Tom, I think its ilegal for people as young as us to work, but we could try for small jobs, how old are you?" he asked.

"I'm ten" Tom said distractilly as he saw a park a couple of streets ahead.

"So am I, I'll be eleven in less than a month though" Harry said proudly now also seeing the park.

"Tom, what do you say about resting in that park?" He asked hopefully.

"That's fine with me" Tom answered in a fake resigned voice.

To be continued...

A/N: So what do you think? should I continue? I know they are both out of character but I'm working on that...


End file.
